Wednesday's News Hour report on swine flu

Robert V. Tobin's assessments of Sac'to homelessness

"[T]hose who argued for or against the tent city relied on the sort of simplistic explanations and quick-fix remedies that trivialize the causes and minimize the consequences of homelessness." wrote Robert V. Tobin, the president and CEO of the transitional-housing organization Cottage Housing, in a opinion piece published two days ago in Inside Politics Daily. The title given the piece is "Sacramento's Homeless Camp: More Fiction Than Fact."

Fiction v. Fact counterpoints within his piece read thus:

FICTION: Sacramento's tent city emerged in recent months as the economy declined. FACT: People have lived along the American River since the Gold Rush; homeless people have camped there for decades.

FICTION: Parents and kids were driven from their homes and into shanties. FACT: There were no children living in the encampment.

FICTION: Tent residents were recession refugees new to the homeless scene. FACT: The local homeless policy director said 90 percent of encampment residents were "chronically homeless­"-single individuals living on the streets for extended periods.

FICTION: Cities like Sacramento should create central city homeless encampments like Dignity Village, a successful project in Portland, Ore. FACT: After a multitude of problems, Dignity Village was removed from downtown several years ago and is now located about as close to Portland's airport runways as you can get without a boarding pass.

Before getting to the important overall point that Tobin is trying to make, it must be pointed out that his "fact"s aren't all the bare truths he implies.

While there have sporatically been homeless campers in all parts of Sacramento, the emergence of a more-solid community of campers in what was later dubbed Tent City [but was known in Homeless World Sac as "the wasteland"] emerged east of Blue Diamond Almond only in late November. The emergence of this community came about because the police rousted minor encampments near Bannon and North B Sts and on so-called Crack Alley which ran north of North B near 7th St. Thus, the number of tents in "the wasteland," which wasn't rousted, very suddenly became significant and noticed.

	Dignity Village was moved to a location in the shadow of Portland's airport in an agreement with the city to expand the village's acreage."

But, yes, the idea that there was suddenly a boom in homelessness in Sacramento due to the tumbling economy, as the Oprah Show and other media implied, was a herring colored red. And the idea that families were suddenly living on the streets in great numbers was false, too. [See the SacHo blogpost "The Sacramento Homeless emergency that Wasn't There."]

While Tobin is right that Dignity Village isn't a perfect template for Sacramento homeless advocates (such as this blog!) to use in envisioning a serene tent encampment in our metropolis, Tobin is wrong to say that any vision of a legal encampment is tied to the idea of it being in the cental part of the city. Sure, Sister Libby of Loaves & Fishes would like to see the encampment near her facilities in the center of the city, but something elsewhere will do. And, to the mind of many, a legal encampment apart from L&F domination would be preferable!

What needs to be done

Tobin's solution is, basically, for the American people to stop using situational/temporary means – shelters and the idea (if not the reality) of legal encampments – as a permanent way to address the entrenched problems of homelessness.

Tobin, then, wants to "change the rules" – but he doesn't show us how we escape having things continue as they are, with a thousand-plus people out there in the county with no means to sustain themselves. What he implies, without saying so overtly, is that Cottage Housing, and other transitional-housing-with-support-services businesses, should be funded to expand to take care of many many more who are without a roof. And that zoning and building rules should be changed to make for more apartments that poor people can afford.

Fine. I applaud his rules changes. But until pennies rain from heaven, we must have a legal encampment. Why so? Because shelters are inadequate in many respects. They gobble up too much of homeless people's time, preventing us from pursuing job opportunities or keeping jobs once we have them. If the shelters were restricted such that they could only lockdown those they give beds to for no more than ten hours, and that they would accommodate people with new night jobs, THAT might make it possible for the homeless not to need to camp out as a means to escape the trap of homelessness.

[BTW, the Union Gospel Mission which provides shelter for 60 men and up to 24 in its Rehab Program, tries to accommodate workers it shelters, allowing for some late check-ins and for early wake-ups. Hooray, UGM! Still, it does not accommodate night workers who would need to miss the shelter's nightly sermon.]

Tobin writes "It is senseless to sanction and fund tent cities that address only one symptom of homelessness – the lack of shelter – and none of its causes." But what he doesn't know, from not being in Homeless World Sacramento, is that there is a whole lot more that many people in HWS can do for themselves if they are not encumbered by the shackles of invasive shelter-with-aid "help" they are getting. Like a modern-day Sacramentan Oliver Twist, I would like to walk up the steps of City Hall with my bowl of gruel and say, "Less, please."

Letter to Loaves & Fishes Board of Directors, and others

	Proposed new logo for L&F after name change to "Loaf & Gone Fishing."

[this was sent via email to ~12 people]
To the Board of Loaves & Fishes, et al,

For the second time in a month, the Loaves & Fishes facility is going to close for a three-day time off.

The first time was really for three days plus, when L&F closed on the afternoon of Monday, April 6, and for the full days of April 7, 8 & 9.

Now, with two-plus-days' notice, (notice for a change!), L&F denizens are told, in a notice taped to the Info Kiosk table, that L&F plans to be closed for three days, beginning on Monday, May 4, for spring cleaning. Including the weekend, that is five straight days that L&F will close its park and other functions/facilities at the complex.

The closure on April 6,7,8 & 9 was justified as being due to a few denizens' use or purchase on-site of drugs or alcohol. Closure for that reason was unjustified. Everyone should not be "punished" for the actions of a few. Certainly, actions should have been taken against the rule breakers, themselves. They should have been 86ed from the facility; Garren 86es people from the park/facility frequently. Why would not this action have been most-appropriate for the rule breakers of April 6!?

It is my understanding that it is L&F management's view that punishing everyone puts pressure on rule-breakers to conduct themselves properly. This philosophy is a craven one. L&F should not be attempting to arouse vigilantism in the park.

The upcoming three-day closure [on May 4, 5, & 6] is justified as being needed to clean the park and complex. This reason for closure is curious to me and others. We were told during the prior long closure that employees would not be sent home, but would be on-site cleaning the park and other areas. Are we now to believe that the L&F facility has, again, become extravagantly dirty after only four weeks!?

Loaves & Fishes and the homeless are in a synergistic relationship. You "use" us to raise money to keep the organization going; we use your services.

In the past, because of the synergy in play, I didn't want to do anything to harm L&F's fundraising, even while Sister Libby's false and faked actions to demonstrate an untrue booming need for aid to families was going on. Now, Loaves & Fishes, under Sister Libby's management, is directly and incompassionately at odds with the needs of homeless people, who have needs which often include a desire to lift themselves up from their roofless [as they call it in Australia] condition.

Unless Loaves & Fishes can show that it wishes to try to live up to the lofty promise of what it's about, derived from the Book of Matthew, it is the position of this L&F denizen [and his humble blogs] that donors should be warned not to give their money or time to Loaves & Fishes.

Right now L&F stinks of rotted fish, and it is not the park that is in need of being cleaned out.

Signed [in text],

Tom Armstrong
Update 4/30/09: I have an agreement with Loaves & Fishes that after May 6 they will not [or will try very hard not] to close their facility for more than three days in a row, including weekends when they are almost always closed. A five-straight-days closure, like the one forthcoming from May 2-6 will be a thing of the past. Homeless people need the services of Loaves & Fishes; a five-straight-days barren period is too much. Many thanks to GB. -- Tom

Overflow overflows

Despite a million bucks having been thrown at the issue, people are now finding that shelter is unavailable.

Overflow shelter, a place meant to keep homeless people from being forced to disobey city and county law, has now overflowed. Yes, Overflow, also known as Winter shelter, though we are well past winter, has spilled above its brim. Overflow has overflowed.

Last night, with its beds taken, and its couches all claimed as sleeping spaces, Overflow management decided to leave people [Update 5/1/09: the people consisted of "three or four men," I'm now told.] in front of Union Gospel Mission with the expectation or hope that the unaccommodated men would be able to claim beds in the mission's shelter that holds 60.

But all or some of the men, abandoned to their own devises, were not able to secure beds.

This morning, a van from VOA, the administrator of Overflow, pulled up in front of the mission to pick up one displaced man, Vincent, who slept on the sidewalk in front of the mission.

On March 30, VOA Vice President Christie J. Holderegger received a 7-part list of suggestions to make Overflow more accommodating, physically and mentally, for the benefit of the sheltered. This was just one of the suggestions:

We homeless men are aware that sometimes Overflow is full when the mission has empty beds, and vise versa. To better the distribution of beds, it ought to be possible for the Overflow staff and mission to communicate to assure that men needing a bed, when there are open beds, get matched up.

If the Union Gospel Mission is "oversubscribed" for an evening, perhaps it would be possible for men for whom there isn't a bed to be driven to Overflow. The mission staff knows whom it cannot accommodate at ~9:20pm each evening. Is there some way a mission staffer could call an Overflow staffer to place men there if Overflow has open bunks. And then mightn't a mission staff guy drive men needing a place to stay to Overflow?

Apparently, Overflow staff didn't communicate with Union Gospel Mission staff in hopes of benefitting needy homeless men, last night.

VOA needs to do better. And with all the money they are getting from the city and county, we and our city and county officials should demand better.

Sac'to Court to hear motion for summary judgment on Lehr v. Sac'to

Loaves & Fishes is distributing flyers to spur attendance at a hearing at U.S. 9th District Court at 501 "I" Street in downtown Sacramento, that will rule on a summary judgment motion with respect to the long-standing case of Anthony Lehr, et al v. City of Sacramento, et al.

The flyer tells us that the hearing will be in Dept. 7 at 2PM on April 30 before Judge Morrison C. England, Jr.

Information on the lawsuit, that was filed August 2, 2007, can be found at the Loaves & Fishes website. L&F, in addition to the homeless-aid organizations SHOC and Francis House, have joined the suit as as plaintiffs. Other information on the beginnings of the lawsuit can be found at the Homeward Street Journal wikispace.

Per the L&F webspace,

The lawsuit challenges the confiscation of personal property belonging to homeless people by the City and County and the practice of law enforcement agencies writing citations for illegal camping to homeless persons sleeping on public property during the night while there is not adequate shelter space.

SacHo has no information on which side in the lawsuit filed the motion, or what it entails. One possiblity is that the City of Sacramento is asking that the suit be summarily dismissed. And the L&F flyer is, then, an attempt to raise a crowd to boo or protest, should the judge affirm the defense team's motion.

Update 4/30/09 10am: I've learned that it is the plaintiff's lead lawyer, Mark Merin, who submitted the summary-judgment motion. What the motion is, specifically, remains unknown to me. Certainly, I wish Merin and the many plaintiffs good luck with the suit and the motion.

Update 5/1/09: Now I learn that my 4/30 information was wrong and that my original supposition was partially right. The summary judgment motion came from the defendent. Sacramento, et al, asked the judge to dismiss at least part of the lawsuit, including issues related to illegal-camping ordinances. The judge promised to rule on the motion within ten days.

Sac'to Spirituality Examiner focuses on spirituality and homelessness

	Picture of homeless man sleeping on a bench that appeared with the examiner.com article.

Over at examiner.com – a new website that is at the cutting edge of the evolution of newspapers into something very inquisitive and solely online – the Sacramento Spirituality Examiner, Steve Curless, looks at homelessness in our metropolis after the demise of Tent City, in the first of a three-piece report, "Helping the Homeless, Part I."

[Steve credits this blog, and its cousin, Homeless Tom, in his report. I met Steve online and colaberated on a blog at one time with him. Since then, we've become pals in meatspace in our shared metropolis.]

In his first part, Steve addresses the distance people leading typical lives have from the homeless and how it can be "an abstraction." But, with the serious recession we've entered in deepening, homelessness becomes up-close and personal. For Steve, his friendship with homeless me has personalized homelessness.

Steve then touches on the difficulties of homeless life and the deficits of homeless-aid organizations meant to serve us.

He writes about Tent City and how it was rousted and made to disappear, at considerable expense, to hide the blight from media attention.

In his next report, Steve intends to look at what "government and privately-funded organizations [can] do to help the homeless, and [if there is] a role for spirituality to play."

I am hopeful readers of this blog will plug in to Steve's and those of other examiners at examiner.com. Certainly, I hope that readers, here, will read the wisdom in Steve's follow-up pieces on homelessness. Steve is a profoundly wise and compassionate fellow.

Swine Flu and the Sacramento Homeless

	• Confirmed Deaths • Confirmed Cases •Unconfirmed Cases •No Reported Cases Photo updates automatically and will include information that goes beyond what was known when blogpost was written.

There is talk in the street and in the dorms about the danger of having swine flu spread rapidly among our area's homeless population.

The dorms in the middle of the city are tightly spaced with one, at the Union Gospel Mission, that puts 60 men in particularly close quarters in narrow bunk beds in a single, undivided room.

Of group dining halls, the two for denizens of Loaves & Fishes are cramped, with many food-serving volunteers who are ill trained in restaurant-level cleanliness practices.

The flu outbreak has killed dozens of people in Mexico, the epicenter of the disease, and the count of afflicted in the United States is 70. According to the Sac Bee, three seventh-grade students in Fair Oaks, a suburb of Sacramento, are reported to be ill with the virus, as is a health-care worker associated with the school. Nine other young people at the school are suffering flu-like symptoms; they are yet to be tested.

Two deaths in Los Angeles county are now being investigated by the coroner's office, there, for possibly being caused by swine flu. There has yet to be any official report of death from the flu in the US.

At Mercy Clinic at Loaves & Fishes, today, people coming for services were offered blue masks. The purpose of a face mask is to effectively cover a person's mouth and nose so that if a person is around someone who is infected, there is a decreased likelihood of transmission.

What is the disease?

According to wikipedia, symptoms of swine flu, generally, are chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and discomfort. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person recovers fully.

The Center for Disease Control [the CDC] tells us this new virus has the potential to become a flu pandemic because the strain is novel, transmitted from human to human against little immunity, and the Mexican mortality rate is unusually high.

Prevention and Treatment

Recommendations to prevent infection by the virus consist of the standard personal precautions against influenza. This includes:

• Frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public.
• People should avoid touching their mouth, nose or eyes with their hands unless they've washed their hands.
• If people do cough, they should either cough into a tissue and throw it in the garbage immediately or, if they cough in their hand, they should wash their hands immediately.

Current development, large-scale manufacturing, distribution and delivery of a new vaccine takes several months. The WHO Director-General announced that production of the unchanged seasonal vaccine should continue for now, and that the WHO would assist the development process for an effective vaccine.

U.S.-based medical product company Baxter International has requested a virus sample from the WHO in order to begin development of a new vaccine. Baxter has patented a cell-based technology that may allow the company to develop a vaccine in half the time it usually takes, possibly cutting development time from six months to three.

Homeless-Aid Volunteers

There is some question about how soon homeless organization volunteers might stop offering their free services if the virus becomes increasingly a threat.

This blog has advocated in the past that many jobs done by volunteers should be done by homeless people themselves. Certainly, the Rehab Program guys at Union Gospel Mission do a great job performing most of the work that is needed to keep the mission with all its programs and services going. The Rehab guys are effectively homeless, living in a dorm, as they are trained to be wholesome Christian citizens in a nine-month program.

There is no doubt in my mind that there is a bounty of good workers in the homeless community who could take over the work now done by volunteers. I would expect, though, that these men and women should be remunerated for what they do. Many homeless organizations receive quite a lot in donations, grants and payment from other sources. They must find a way to pay wages for work that is now getting done for free, if it comes to that.

The Sacramento Homeless Emergency that Wasn't There

"The newspaper lies, the radio lies, the TV lies, the streets howl with truth." - Henry Miller

A new breakdown of Street Count, 2009, figures by the County of Sacramento Department of Human Assistance shows that fewer families with an aggregate fewer family members were on the street or in homeless shelters in 2009 than was the case in the 2008 count.

This defies the basis of the newsstorm that developed the past three month where it was believed that a huge outbreak of homeless families in Sacramento was a bellwether of the beginning of a new Great Depression in America.

The following tables show the breakdown of the new data:

2008 Households with Dependent Children	Unshel tered	Emer gency Shel tered	Subtotal Sheltered and Unsheltered	in Transitional Housing	Grand Totals
Number of Households	12	47	59	102	161
Number of Persons (adults and children)	33	131	164	278	442

2009 Households with Dependent Children	Unshel tered	Emer gency Shel tered	Subtotal Sheltered and Unsheltered	in Transitional Housing	Grand Totals
Number of Households	6	41	47	138	185
Number of Persons (adults and children)	16	129	145	398	543

Change in Past Year Households with Dependent Children	Unshel tered	Emer gency Shel tered	Subtotal Sheltered and Unsheltered	in Transitional Housing	Grand Totals
Number of Households	-6	-6	-12	+36	+24
Number of Persons (adults and children)	-17	-2	-19	+120	+101

Note in the last table it shows that there was a DECREASE in number of families on the street or in shelters, year to year, comparing January 2008 to January 2009. Ditto, the number of homeless persons that make up families DECREASED from January 2008 to January 2009.

An overall increase in homeless families was reported, year to year, due to a substantial increase in the number of families living in transitional housing.

Thus, the great overblown emergency of the past few months has been substantially, if not totally, a journalist fraud, put out there by frantic reporters who determined what they were going to write, riding the Oprah wave, and let that overwhelm the reality they saw on the ground.

Yes, more families are displaced, according to the 2009 count as compared to 2008, but there are actually fewer among what is typically viewed as homeless people. My definition and what most people view as homelessness does not include living in transitional housing.

Indeed, the defination of a homeless person has a direct government designation, developed as part of the McKinney-Vento Act of 1987:

• an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence;
• an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is--
• a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);
• an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or
• a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

The need for emergency funds, that was forthcoming from the City of Sacramento to aid families, was in greater need in 2008 than in 2009. Basically, the city spent a million dollars for the Emergency that Wasn't There.

However, that's not to say that spending money, EFFICIENTLY and TARGETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND PROJECTS, and spending even much more than what's being spent now isn't a good, if not great, use of funds that can very effectively lessen the abundant human misery among the homeless in Sacramento.

Dalai Lama, homeless like us

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Dalai Lama spent his second day of a weekend swing throught the Bay Area at a soup kitchen, dishing out food and jokes for the homeless guests.

The Dalai Lama, head of Tibet's government in exile and one of the most significant spiritual leaders in the world, told the homeless in attendance that he was homeless like them.

His visit was arranged by The Forgotten International, a nonprofit that promotes helping the world's poorest people.

Sac'to Muslim group to share lunch with the hungry on May 3

A group called Sacramento Muslims For the Hungry is putting on a luncheon on Sunday, May 3, to share God's blessings. The event is to be held at the Grand Hall, at 1215 "J" Street [cross-street is 12th], across from the Convention Center from 1:00 - 3:00 PM. [see map]

A similar event, quite probably hosted by the same group, was held last December 14 at the same location. That prior event was very, very successful. In a SacHo blogpost, the next day, I wrote, "A delicious afternoon meal, put on by Sacramento-area Muslims for the homeless community, yesterday, was much enjoyed and appreciated." and "The muslim people who hosted and served people, in buffet fashion, were all very kind, smiling and generous."

Notice of the forthcoming luncheon came to me, and others, in the form of a wonderful card of invitation passed out at Loaves & Fishes' Friendship Park. The card beseaches the recipient to "Come share God's blessings with us."

The Soloist

The national and international media have published a whole world of misleading, uninformed crap relating to homelessness in Sacramento – since late February when the Oprah Show misrepresented* the homeless situation here and in our nation.

The Sacramento Bee, that once noble newspaper, has been fully as bad as any news source in writing about the homeless. The Bee, SN&R and the local TV stations have all done a great disservice to the subjects of their stories and their readers.

But the last words in a review of The Soloist, a movie that premiered today, says something that is right [about homelessness, anyway – I don't know if it's right about the movie which I haven't seen]. Here's the last paragraph of the review, written by Carla Meyer.

Successful as a portrait of an unlikely friendship and as a look at the modern world of newspapering, "The Soloist" truly distinguishes itself in its thoughtful depiction of homelessness as a problem impervious to quick fixes. To the passer-by who sees a homeless person and wonders why he or she cannot just get it together, "The Soloist" offers this answer: It's very, very complicated.

UPDATE 4/24: Looking at the reviews of The Soloist at Rotten Tomatoes, it appears the film is getting mixed – if not polorized – reviews. Roughly, 40% of "Top Critics" say it is sentimental slop while 60% find the film is a deep "empathetic exploration of mental illness," homelessness and the newspaper biz.
--
* One can't really blame the Oprah Show for the tsunami of misinformation. Oprah's show targets a specific audience that it crafts and slants stories for. Thus, the Oprah Show's narrowed emphasis on the interests of well-off women and families is legit. The fact that general-news sources, following in Oprah's wake, also crafted and slanted their stories, focussing on women and families to such an exclusive extent that it led the public to misunderstand homelessness, is where things went kerflooey.

Sometimes it comes down so heavy I feel like I should wear a hat.

Tangential thought #1:
Wisdom from Doubt

In the movie Doubt, both the main characters, who battle throughout the film, are rather heroic and rather terrible.

In each case the character's salvation rests on his/her ability to doubt. In both cases, the jury [and that might be a jury of One, if you're sure about God, btw] is out on how proper and righteous each is.

If, as a viewer of the film, you make it through, paying proper attention, you are uncertain how to assess the movie and the nature of its characters. And if you think deeply about the movie, you have to wonder about those judgments in your own life you are uncannily certain of. Is there room for doubt?

If it says Libby, Libby, Libby
on the label, label, label

I do wonder if Sister Libby of Loaves & Fishes is quite mad, incapable of seeing herself as Hypocrisy Manifested. In this mode of seeing her, she is dangerous to the well-being of homeless people in Sacramento, if not so very much in the short term, certainly in the long run.

Libby stood by the mayor's side when he announced the million-dollar plan to address homelessness, related to Tent City. A million dollars is a great deal of money when you're talking about an encampment with a population of approximately 200 people. [That's $5,000 per Tent City resident.]

Now, after the million-dollar plan went forward very much per expectations, Libby has spun on a dime and is now leading a civil-disobedience effort to protest the mayor's homeless initiative. [Effectively, this is so. She might argue that it is just the safe ground/no-more-rousting-of-the-homeless elements that she protests. But SHE STOOD BY THE MAYOR'S SIDE; SHE DRANK THE KOOL-AID, giving her imprimatur to the effort.]

Also, in the interim between December, when Loaves's Safe Ground Rallys started and now, Loaves [i.e., Libby] has changed the very definition of Safe Ground. NOW, the ideal of Safe Ground is only necessary so long as shelter space is unavailable or so long as the economy is tanking. BUT, TODAY, shelter space IS available: There were open beds at both Overflow and the mission last night. By Loaves's new definition, Eroded Ground -- err, I mean Safe Ground -- isn't called for. By Loaves's definition, there shouldn't be a tent encampment.

Tangential thought #2:
Don't defeat 'the good enough' in pursuit of 'the perfect.'
Wisdom from The Assassination of Richard Nixon.

In the rather obscure, and badly titled movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Sean Penn, in perhaps his very best performance, plays a man who lets not-insignificant, but relatively small, complaints unravel his relationships and his career success. Ultimately, the corrosive nature of his madness causes him to implode.

Some film reviewers thought the movie didn't have a point, but that is because they missed it. [Like how many may miss the point of this careening and confused blogpost, btw.] It was a psychological study of the downward spiral of a life. And a warning against high-blown idealism and how it can destroy the very thing it claims mightily to want to save. At least, that's what I think the film might be about. Maybe.

If it says Libby, Libby, Libby on the label,
label, label, redux, redux, redux

I do think I am right that Sister Libby is in direct odds in her direct management [or, should I say, neglect to manage the day-to-day] at L&F with the limelight she seeks as a leader of homeless causes.

Loaves & Fishes is part of a lawsuit to get damages for homeless people's confiscated property, while at the same time Sister Libby allowed Friendship Park management to threaten to destroy homeless people's property with only a day's warning.

Sister Libby sings "We Shall Overcome" with respect to Tent City, while her political activities have led to the problem that needs to be overcome! She's declared war against herself.

She goes around as this great advocate of the Sacramento Homeless, while at the same time she leads an organization that regularly closes Friendship Park at whim and without notice. The public remains mostly ignorant of Sister Libby's dark side. There is no reporting outside SacHo about park closures, for example, and God forbid there be any mention of it on the L&F website, which is a showcase to fake-out potential donors, and not a pathway for information of what's going on. [Note that Loaves & Fishes, unlike VOA, fails the Better Business Bureau's stamp-of-approval as an "Accredited Charity" test for nonprofits. (See VOA's BBB stamp at the bottom of the left sidebar of their home page; something that L&F doesn't quality for.)]

The politicians in town must be weary of play-both-sides Libby, whatever they might need to say publically. This could be to the detrement of the homeless in Sacramento, having Sister Libby continue to be the face of homelessness in Sacramento.

But I don't know for sure.

And I don't know for sure if I gave this blogpost a good title.

Tangential thought #3: Wisdom from Doubt

I don't think that Sister Libby doubts herself, thus she can do opposing things at the same time. Claim to be this great advocate for the homeless, while her policies at the organization she heads leaves them dumbfounded and less able to climb out of poverty.

She can appear as a leader on both sides of an issue.

She can redefine labels dynamically to suit the immediate purpose. SAFE GROUND, UNSAFE GROUND, GROUND ROUND.

Substantial amount of stimulus money for county to prevent and ease homelessness is forthcoming

Federal stimulus money, totalling $4.7 million, is forthcoming to the county of Sacramento for the specific purpose "to prevent and ease homelessness, aimed at those who have recently become homeless," according to a Sacramento Bee report, today, "County set to deploy U.S. aid."

These new funds, approximately 12% of $40 million that was announced for the county under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, likely will be greatly helpful at relieving stress on the homeless community and homeless-aid services.

According to a federal government website, the Act is an "effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges."

Tent City residents' eviction notices tell them to move to a shelter. What shelter?

According to the eviction notices Tent City residents are getting today, their instructions are to move to shelter – the one at Overflow [aka, Winter shelter at Cal Expo].

But there's no room or next to no room at Overflow! The 154 beds that pre-existed the April 9 expansion have always been taken, or nearly all taken, since Overflow opened on Nov 24. Sometimes those beds were overbooked with men sleeping on couches in the movie room.

The expansion added just fifty more beds. The great majority of those were taken by Tent City immigrants on April 9, leaving just a few – maybe six – that were assigned to the "regular" population of Overflow sheltered. Update: According to a Bee story on 4/14, quoting VOA V.P. Christie Holderegger, fewer than half of the fifty new beds had been taken thus far by former-Tent City people. I got confirmation that the Bee story is correct, SacHo's "great majority" is wrong. My bad.

Here's the text of the eviction notice that Val Jon Farris received, according to his blog for today at the iCare-America website:

ATTENTION:“It is unlawful to camp in the City of Sacramento. It is a violation of Section 12.52.030 of the Sacramento City Code. This location is scheduled for immediate clean-up by the Sacramento Police Department. Any items (or people – my words here) not removed will be considered abandoned and disposed of accordingly. Your immediate attention is required to avoid any loss of property.” (And then hand written in by the officers is this sentence . . .) “MOVE TO SHELTER BY: 4-15-09 WED.”

Val Jon's idea for the 15th is for the Tent City emigrants, and other homeless, to all go to Overflow, en masse, and request the shelter they've been promised. As Farris states it, "Not in opposition to the City, but in accord with them." And overburden the system.

It does seem that the shelters are near capacity today. With or without Farris's scheme/idea, shelters in Sacramento will be overburdened, shortly. And that says something about how little bang for the buck Sacramento City is getting for the million dollars it put together, specifically to take care of the rousted Tent City homeless folks.

Where's the data on Sacramento county's homeless families?

Ever since the Oprah show, broadcast on Feb. 25, there's been enormous interest in homeless families in Sacramento.

Many national news providers have misinformed the public about homelessness nationwide, using Sacramento as the iconic prime example of homelessness that has befallen families.

You might think that Street Count, 2009, taken by the Department of Human Assistance in Sacramento county, would tag numbers to wild guesses and either end or confirm the reports of booming family homelessness.

The data for the count of homeless in our county was due "five or six weeks" following the count on Jan. 27, but only got reported out Friday. SacHo [in "Street Count, 2009 Data: Homelessness up 4.6% in county in past year"] and the Sacramento Bee [in a headline article "Sacramento homeless study mixed: More families, fewer 'chronic' cases."] posted/published articles on the count results over the weekend.

The Sacramento Bee report by Cynthia Hubert begins with this one-sentence paragraph:

More families with children are living on the streets and in homeless shelters in Sacramento County, a new survey suggests.

What's significant about the sentence? The last word – suggests.

I'm sure most readers of Hubert's fine article didn't glom onto that word, but it's not just interesting, its necessary.

The data to back-up a claim that "more families with children are living on the streets and in homeless shelters in Sacramento county" ISN'T confirmed by the new survey's data. A breakdown of the data isn't there to confirm this. What data is there is an aggregate of families on the street, in shelters and in transitional housing.

People in transitional housing, while likely living a lower quality life than what they had been, are not homeless any more than apartment dwellers are. Thus a breakdown of the family data that the DHA has compiled is important at helping to understands what's happening to families in Sacramento in these dicey economic times.

The aggregate data that is provided is this: There's been a 14.6% increase in households that are homeless or living in transitional housing, up from 161 to 184 in 2009, compared to 2008. Homeless individuals or individuals living in transitional housing who are part of families increased from 442 to 541 in a year. That's a 22.4% increase.

Forced attendence at religious service for Overflow sheltered

Yesterday afternoon at the pick-up area where persons seeking shelter in Overflow must be if they are to receive one of 204 shelter slots, a Christian church service was held with attendance to the service being mandatory.

The service was held on the Delany Center parking lot, a part of the Loaves & Fishes facility that Overflow management, Volunteers of America of Greater Sacramento and Northern Nevada, leases from Loaves & Fishes as the pick-up/staging area for homeless residents who are then bused to the Overflow [aka, Winter shelter] facility at Cal Expo.

Today, it is expected that the Sacramento city police will be giving eviction notices to those who remain in Tent City. Tent City residents will be expected to evacuate their location, on SMUD property, Wednesday and find other sleeping/living arrangements. The threat has been made that Tent City residents that remain on Thursday could be arrested.

An important part of the city's effort to peacefully disestablish the Tent City encampment is to have shelter slots at the ready at Overflow.

Now, it seems Overflow is operating as a Christian facility that is unwelcoming to homeless not of that faith.

From my understanding of events, a charitable group began serving spaghetti dinners outside the Delany parking lot as men and woman began assembling inside the lot, sometime after 3pm. Soon members of the faith-based group began coming onto the parking lot to distribute cold bottled water.

The preacher associated with the group then came on to the parking lot and asked and received permission to preach to the assembled homeless people.

Maria, the new person in charge of Overflow, was not in attendance at the parking lot. The two senior people on her staff, T. and K., slinked off, playing no part in the decision to allow the church group onto VOA space and requiring those seeking shelter to hear a sermon. A new Overflow employee, E., made the decisions relating to the church group's access.

The assembled homeless were required to sit quietly and listen to the sermon.

The name of the church group and the name of the preacher are not known to this reporter. At the end of the services, the group announced that they would return next week.

While the church group, with their spaghetti, were well received by many in the pick-up area, others are resentful at being forced to listen to a church service as a requirement for being given shelter for that night at Overflow.

Since Overflow is funded predominently by the city and county of Sacramento, it is a government program which is not supposed to force attendance of persons it serves to religious functions.

Update on Tent City, via info in latest Costa Mantis video

Eviction notices will be given to Tent City campers on April 13; people will be expected to have moved from the encampment location by the 15th; on the 16th, people camping on private property will be subject to arrest. This information comes from the latest Costa Mantis mini-documentary. Mantis is living in Tent City from where he films and produces daily video reports.

Tent City is on private property, most of which belongs to SMUD [which stands for Sacramento Municipal Utility District]. A small portion of the property belongs to Union Pacific.

Below is Costa Mantis's April 10 report, "Live from Tent City Day Ten 04 10 09." Mantis began his onsite series of mini-documentaries on the 1st of April.



You can follow the Tent City story at Costa Mantis's Channel at YouTube.

BUT, be aware that a press release, relating to his documentary Flying Pumpkins, tells us that Mantis is an Emmy-award winner. A search at the Emmy Award website does not confirm Mantis's claim. I tell you this because Mantis is seeking donations at one of his websites. Caveat emptor.

Street Count, 2009 Data: Homelessness up 4.6% in county in past year

The Street Count, 2009, shows an increase in homelessness in Sacramento county from 2008 to 2009 of just 4.6%. The count of homeless went from 2678 to 2800.

This data is likely to mystify the public, which from local news reports and the recent months of a national news frenzy, would lead the public to believe there's been a massive boom.

Chronic homelessness, usually defined as people out-on-the street [and not sofa surfing] for a year or more is down. HUD, and the survey uses this definition: "Unaccompanied individuals with a documented disabling condition who have either been continuously on the street or in an emergency shelter for a year or more or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years." Whew.

Anyway, the chronically homeless [by the HUD definition], which are targetted for housing placements, are a subset of the Street Count totals, and are down from 680 to 468. "Other homeless," [that is, the non-chronic homeless, by the HUD definition] are up, from 1998, last year, to 2332, this year.

Many homeless are not reported in the Street Count that is sent to HUD. They are not reported since they are not on the street, but data on them was collected this year. They total 472. Here's the breakdown: In a Sac'to county jail, 344; in a county mental-health facility, 33; in a county alcohol- or drug-treatment facility, 82; in a county hospital, 13.

Here are "characteristics" of the homeless, according to the report:

Characteristic	#	Percent of 2800 (total)
Chronically Homeless	468	16.7%
Mentally Ill	753	26.9%
Substance Abuse	1345	48.0%
Veterans	426	15.2%
People with HIV/AIDS	60	2.1%
Victims of Domestic Violence	699	25.0%
Unaccompanied Youth (under 18)	35	1.3%

Another very important measurement indicates an increase in suffering families. Here, the DHA measures households, and individuals that makeup household, but includes people in transitional housing – not just families on the streets or in shelters, as with DHA's other counts. This measurement indicate there's been a 14.6% increase in households that are homeless, up from 161 to 184 in 2009, compared to 2008.

Homeless individuals who are part of families increased from 442 to 541 in a year. That's a 22.4% increase. THIS is a big increase; nearly a hundred individuals.

Street Count data does not differentiation in the reporting between families on the street and those in transitional housing – even though there is a huge difference as a matter of quality of life. Possibly, the raw data gives subtotals which would be of great interest. SacHo is seeking to get a breakdown.

Update 4/15: Lucinda Serynek of DHA is working at pulling more detail out of the data for SacHo. Stay tuned.

Street Count data released; homeless increased 14 percent

In surprising and late-to-be-released information from Sacramento county Department of Human Assistance, the finding is that "the overall number of homeless has increased 14 percent from 2007 to 2009, [while the] chronically homeless [element has] decreased 34.8 percent."

According to the press release,

“It is exciting to see that the efforts of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Sacramento County are making a difference in the lives of the chronically homeless in our community,” said Roger Dickinson, Sacramento County Supervisor and champion of the 10 Year Plan. He continues, “The results of the Homeless Street Count show that chronic homelessness has decreased by 34.8% between 2007 and 2009. That means that in the last two years 320 chronic homeless people are now living in permanent supportive housing who otherwise would be on the streets or in a shelter. We are committed as a county to end chronic homelessness in 10 years.”

SacHo will try to obtain a copy of the Homeless Street Count 2009 final report [i.e, THE DATA] and will let you know [in a blogpost, coming later today, hopefully] more details of what the Street Count survey found.

UPDATE: A better report on Street Count, using more-detailed data, appears in SacHo here: "Street Count, 2009 Data: Homelessness up 4.6% in county in past year."

Latest news from Tent City

Yo, Tent City-interested readers:

Filmmaker Costa Mantis is filming at Tent City to produce a daily report from there. His YouTube video mini-documentaries are must-sees. Below, his 4/9 report:



You can find Costa Mantis's reports updated at YouTube.

Also, Val Jon Farris has been living at and blogging and filming at Tent City. You can learn what he's learned firsthand at the Sacramento Tent City webpage at his recently-formed organization i-Care America. [Note that i-Care America is new in 2009, without a history to judge it by. SacHo/Tom is sceptical of the organization, but is hopeful it will stick around and earn trust that it doesn't yet have as an outfit that will be honorable and aid Sacramento homeless.]

Loaves & Fishes ends "time out" for homeless

Because it had to – Loaves & Fishes simply can't be closed on Good Friday with its many Catholic donors and volunteers – L&F ended its "time-out for adults" and resumed full-service after a three-plus day homeless-punishment period.

Management at Loaves has a longstanding backward policy of punishing all it serves to retaliate for the bad behaviour of a few. Last Monday, people in L&F's Friendship Park were using or dealing drugs and using alcohol, so the park, with all its services, and men's washroom and possibly other services, was closed – until today.

This morning, the cul-de-sac, where people wait for the Park gates to open, was near empty as 7am approached. In significant part, this was due to heavy rain last night [people in tents or on the street 'slept in'] and the mission recognizing today as a holiday [making wakeup time there 7am, rather than the usual weekday wakeup time of 6am, when the guys staying there have time to get to Loaves before it opens]. It was a bit eerie. May be some people didn't show because they were tired of not being able to depend upon Loaves.

At the Loaves website there's nothing about the closure this week. Of course, they wouldn't want donors to find out, since Loaves has worked hard to convince donors that homeless people are supposed to be helped -- what a notion!

At the charity's webspace, on their About Us page, they post this:

We recognize the dignity and spiritual destiny of each person, and hope by our attitude of hospitality and love, to nourish not only the physical needs of those who come to Loaves & Fishes, but also their spiritual need for love, acceptance, respect, and friendship.

We serve each person with the belief that "often as you did it for one of my least brothers and sisters, you did it for me." (Matthew 25:40)

What crap that is in light of Loaves's actions! Following, is Matthew 25:37-40, a fuller quote of the sentiment from the New Testament that Loaves, with its actions, thumbs its nose at ["The Message," translation]:

Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'

Plus there is another element to be observed.

All organizations ought to be set up so that all motivators are directed toward benefitting those who own it or are served by it.

The worldwide economic fiasco come directly from this misplaced motivation element.

Corporations ended up trying to profit on the short term to greatly enrich senior management, instead of working for the longterm interests of their stockholders and customers.

Governments, today, think of the shortterm – to keep voters happy, so politicos can stay in power, rather than address longterm interests of the nation.

The obligation of Loaves & Fishes is to the homeless and its donors, and not to its Board and senior management. Rather tragically, really, Loaves SAVE MONEYS whenever it closes. It's a no-stress, get-caught-up time for the staff and without their "customers," the homeless, around, there's savings on many expenses.

For Loaves, like for AIG and its executives, there's motivation to do the morally wrong thing.

Little changed at Overflow with it's new extended, expanded services

	Picture from News110 of the front of Winter shelter / Overflow.
	One of the twelve beds for couples in the expanded area. Each couple has their own private room.

Mostly, it's the same as it ever was – for me, anyway.

I was there for the first night of Overflow in it's bigger, extended, expanded version. For the most part, it's same old, same old. [I always have to add that Overflow (as it's mostly-called on the street) is also known as Winter shelter, the name its administrative organization, Volunteers of America, prefers to call it -- even thought it will be operating well past winter, this year, until June 30.]

Gone, is the odd and mean commandant of the place who had gained years of notoriety in Homeless World Sac. He was given his walking papers at the end of March, according to scuttlebutt. I learned that a woman named Mary was the new head.

I arrived at 3pm at the waiting/pick-up area in the parking lot of the Delany Center [part of the Loaves & Fishes complex, which is wedged between the Alkilai Flat area, the Dos Rios Triangle and the Wasteland in Sac'to]. This pick-up location had been built-up since I'd last stayed at Overflow, about three weeks ago. It was 50% bigger with white canopy to shield folks from the elements.

Even though it was early, the place was crowded. People who'd left Tent City were filling out newcomer forms, getting a jump on required paperwork for the to-be-sheltered who hadn't been in Overflow this season [which runs from November to when it closes].

A two-person crew from News10 showed up, and talked to many and did some filming. None of the parking lot filming or interviews made it into the report, but there is stuff from what was filmed at the shelter. [See the viddie, below – or visit the story w/viddie at News10 if the embedment doesn't load.]



At the parking lot, the same amount of chaos remained from what I'd remembered, but, per usual, the staff – especially Tim and Kenny, the first lieutenents – had control over assigning beds and getting people into the busses. With the expansion, there were now 204 bed-slots (as opposed to 154, before) to be filled, and six bus trips (as opposed to four) to the shelter. And, there was another huge metal storage container [like what trucks and ships use to haul goods] to be filled with people's bikes, backpacks, and other luggage-type stuff.

The new shelter spaces were mostly filled with the Tent City emigrees, with a few regular homeless taking open slots.

At the shelter, the back, outdoors area had been opened up, with more area for smokers or other socializing. The five connected modules for the new space were back there, too.

The men's outdoor restroom had doubled in size, with the shelter facility annexing the backside of a duplex bathroom at the fairgrounds.

Otherwise, things were very much as they'd been, except that there were more people and a news crew doing some filming.

From what I learned, the new space provided nice doublebeds in private rooms for twelve couples, who could be straight or gay. Cots or narrow beds were available for 26 single/soletary people in the extended space, out back.

It was disappointing that there weren't more changes in the utility of the pre-existing space and a marked uptick in the esprit de corps of the staff.

Guys in the 104 pre-existing slots for men, were still pretty-much confinded to barracks. The movie room was as it was with lots of traffic to and from the bathroom running through it as guys tried to focus on watching a movie.

The next morning, we were awakened at 5am for breakfast, which was the usual -- oatmeal, this time, instead of cold cereal. I got on the first bus, which now leaves after 6am, rather than at 5:20. Though we're past winter, and there's light earlier in the am, with the new season and time change, VOAs idea is to extend things in the morning. Rather than a rush to get folks out, VOA has funding to allow people to stay until 10am.

A friend of mine had asked staffer Kenny what the policies for the morning were now. The staffer didn't know. May be things will "firm up," as Mary takes greater control; we'll see.

Overflow's expanded space opens for use today

	Picture at VOA homepage, showing Governor Schwarzenegger at podium with Mayor Johnson [center] at Mar. 25 joint press conference.

Four days in advance of what was expected, VOA has put 3600-sq-ft of space that was added to the Overflow complex into operation today, rather than on the 13th. This news comes from a VOA [Volunteers of America of Greater Sacramento and Northern Nevada] media release. VOA operates Overflow, also known as Winter Shelter, under contract with the county of Sacramento.

The new space exists in five proximate "modular stuctures," that are arranged in back of the main building. The modular structures will accomodate 50 additional people, comprised of 26 individuals and 24 sleeping as couples. The total sheltered at Overflow will now be 204 up from 154 (with 104 men and 50 women & children), previously.

It is expected that the sheltered that will fill the new space will come to Overflow from Tent City, which is now shrinking in number of inhabitants and will close by month-end.

As part of its expanded services, Overflow will be open until June 30 this year; provide expanded daily hours of operation (4pm to 10am); add dog kennal facilities (20 dog kennel runs, located at the Loaves & Fishes facility) and augment storage facilities (on the Delancy Center parking lot).

The media release tells us, as well, "Volunteers of America program director Elizabeth Valentine has hired additional staff for [Overflow] and is in the process of securing a host of outside agencies to frequent the shelter in the evenings to provide a range of services from HIV/AIDS testing to housing and job referrals."

Loaves & Fishes to Homeless: Drop Dead

	Famous newspaper headline from 1975.

Loaves & Fishes indefinite closure of its Friendship Park and other unspecified services continues.

Green Hat Ed was in the North C Street cul-de-sac and informed me that the park would not be open today. A few homeless fellows standing about in the cul-de-sac informed me that they had heard that Loaves & Fishes's park would be closed until Friday, Good Friday. [I guess it's an imitation of Christ. Dead for three days, and then emerging from the tomb!]

Ed told me that 250 leaflets had been handed out, informing homeless folk something of the situation. I did not get one of those leaflets.

Yesterday, I emailed each of the the L&F Board of Directors members; I've received no response. Following is the text:

Dear Board of Directors, and others associated with Loaves & Fishes,

I am writing to repudiate the action of Sister Libby Fernandez this morning in closing Friendship Park, without notice, due to the actions of a very few in Friendship Park, yesterday.

Ms. Fernandez is in the bad habit of dealing with the adult denizens of Friendship Park, and adult users of others of L&F's services, as if they are Children and she (and her staff) are Parents.

This Parent-to-Child transactional mode is repugnant and harmful, irrespective of its specific effects. It would be good if the too-quiescent Board would address this element in isolation, in an effort to re-make management of Loaves & Fishes so that it might be wise and compassionate, rather than precipitant and arbitrarily punative.

It is Nazis in Poland and kindergarten teachers that punish everyone for the actions of a few. Loaves & Fishes should stop acting like a Nazi kindergarten teacher in Poland.

If you are not aware of what happened this morning, allow me to fill you in of what I learned before I left L&F property five minutes after 7AM: A large banner was put up, minutes before 7AM, along the FP bathroom wall, facing the fence gates. It read (something like): "Friendship Park will be Closed Until Further Notice."

A sheet of paper was put up on the chainlink-fence gate telling those waiting to get into the park that the reason for the closure was evidence of alcohol and drug use yesterday in the park. The sheet ended with expression of thanks to those who do not use or deal drugs or drink alcohol in the park.

It is a bizarre sentiment of "thanks," to the great great majority of Friendship Park denizens, when the park is closed without notice, without giving immediate access to rented lockers in the park and without providing information of when the shutdown policy will end.

The current management of Loaves and Fishes is greatly unworthy of the people it should be there to serve. Today, Loaves & Fishes acts as if homeless people exist to serve Loaves & Fishes management. It is disgusting.

Under Libby Fernandez's management, Loaves & Fishes never informs users of its services when facilities it manages will be closed in advance of closure. This has been true for the three-day winterizing closure, staff retreats, and when holidays are taken. I can think of no other business -- I cannot imagine a respectable business -- whether profit or non-profit, acting this way.

Board of Directors: Please wake up and do something.

Respectfully,

Tom Armstrong

On Pride

Being Buddhist, I'm usually very negatory regarding pride – but pride has its place.

An article in the New York Times today should be of interest to homeless people and their supporters and advocates. It's titled "When All You Have Left Is Your Pride."

The article tells us,

The fine art of keeping up appearances may seem shallow and deceitful, the very embodiment of denial. But many psychologists beg to differ.

To the extent that it sustains good habits and reflects personal pride, they say, this kind of play-acting can be an extremely effective social strategy, especially in uncertain times.

The article ends with these words:

Pride, in short, begets perseverance. All of which may explain why, when the repo man is at the door, people so often remind themselves that they still have theirs, and that it’s worth something. Because they do, and because it is.

However much pride may go before a fall, it may be far more useful after one.

Many homeless-help non-profits in Sacramento seem beset upon robbing us homeless of our pride. This morning, Loaves & Fishes does what it often does, it shut off its services without notice, preventing people from keeping their appearance up (if not 'keeping up appearances').

VOA's Overflow shelter has only two shower stalls [one for each gender] but no toiletries or towels. My experience, after ten to fourteen total days spent at the shelter, was that it was extremely rare for a man to use the stall. [Full disclosure: It is my current understanding that VOA intends to try to make their two stalls, for over 200 sheltered people, more usable.]

I am told that Union Gospel Mission intentionally doesn't make men in its main dorm too comfortable, in order to encourage the men to strive to upgrade their circumstance, which might include signing up for the mission's Rehab Program.

But the article instructs otherwise: that helping us keep our pride boosts perseverance – and thus keeps us in the struggle to upgrade our lives.

Loaves & Fishes management closes Friendship Park for indefinite period

Denizens of Loaves & Fishes Friendship Park were informed, minutes before its usual 7AM opening this morning, that the park would be closed today, and for an undefined period of time.

A banner was put up on the outer wall of the park bathrooms, facing the gates, reading, "Friendship Park will be Closed until Further Notice."

A sheet of paper was put up on the chain-link fence which informed people that evidence of drug and alcohol use was found in the park, yesterday, and this was the reason for the park closure. The sheet ended with an expression of thanks to park "guests" who do not engage in drug or alcohol use in the park.

Loaves & Fishes management has a history of closing the park without giving notice and for evicting all park denizens for the bad actions of a few. This odd policy of punishing everyone for what a few do most harms those homeless who are endeavoring to get something wholesome done in a day.

Contrary to the public's view of homeless people – and, apparently, Loaves & Fishes management and Board – a great many homeless people scurry to get work each day. Closure of the park prevents many people from having ready access to their belongings in the locker areas. When the washrooms are closed, too, which usually happens during park closures, it prevents people from being able to clean themselves up adequately to work.

Loaves & Fishes has a history of almost-always not giving notice when it closes facilities. For three days, at the beginning of winter, for the purpose of "winterizing" the park, Friendship Park was closed without giving notice. When the staff took a Tuesday off for a retreat, prior notice was not given to services users. When a holiday is upcoming, no notice is given if the park, or other facilities, will be closed either on the day of the holiday or the day following or not at all.

No other business, profit or nonprofit, could stay in operation with such a dismissive attitude toward its denizens. Only because Loaves & Fishes is a monopoly, with its bad actions mostly hidden from public view, can it get away with mistreating those it was created to serve.

Wisdom and Compassion should be served together

From a google group discussion post,

An oft-told example illustrates the relationship of the two virtues of Wisdom and Compassion. Suppose you are approached by a homeless person asking for a handout. You give him some money – which he promptly spends on alcohol. You have been compassionate, but not wise. So the next time you are approached, you give nothing; now you have been wise, but not compassionate. What is the solution? Buy him some food. This is wise and compassionate. Compassion without wisdom is foolish; wisdom without compassion is harsh. As every good parent knows, the two must be used in balance.

What does "safe ground" mean?

At the Loaves & Fishes webspace, on a FAQ sheet for Safe Ground, the term is defined thus:

Safe Ground is a ... location where the homeless can camp legally with access to basic needs such as running water, toilets, and trash cans. Safe Ground does not yet exist.

The above is how people understood the definition when the first "safe ground" rally was held in December, last year.

On the L&F fact sheet, it says a successful Safe Ground is supposed to have these four attributes:

1. It is self governed. The campers are responsible for maintaining order and enforcing the rules they choose for themselves.
2. It must be sanctioned by the City and County government. The City and County must give permission for the Safe Ground to exist.
3. It has access to basic sanitation – running water, toilets, and trash.
4. It has a non-profit sponsor.

This is too-sly by half. Dignity Village in Portland, perhaps the very best example of a successful legal tent encampment, is truly self governing. It has a board of directors responsible for all elements in running the community. There is no need for the fourth item on the attributes list, a funds-diverting non-profit sponsor. [Is L&F jonesing to get a fee from the city or county, you think?]

Lately, things have changed.

In a flyer at L&F's Friendship Park, the term "Safe Ground" seems to be eroding.

The flyer is for an April 21 "Rally for Safe Ground." It says that the effort hopes to rally support to ...

"legalize" a safe campground(s) where homeless folks can have running water, bathrooms, and trash services until our City, County and State are willing and able to provide adequare shelters and affordable housing for the growing numbers of homeless folks due to our depressed economic times.

Note that there now seems to be a caveat that hadn't before been there:

The campground (i.e., Safe Ground) is BY DEFINITION, TEMPORARY. The campground(s) will be there until shelter and housing meet demand OR the economy turns around (i.e., isn't "depressed."), which could happen, by some economists' definitions, in about a year.

This seemingly benign clause can undermine the effort to create a legal encampment. As spartan as life at dwindling Tent City may seem, creating a homey residence is the result of investment and effort. For one (obvious) thing, you have to buy and erect a tent! And, you become a part of a community.

If you look at the pictures of Dignity Village, you see that the community -- like all communities -- evolves and changes. Dignity Village has significantly morphed into a village with dozens of wood & plywood structures. If you look at some of the video of Camp Hope (aka, Tent City) in Ontario, you can see how it has changed: From a more-ramshackled unorganized gathering of camper trailers and tents to what looks like 1950s suberbia, with deluxe EDAR tents.

A Sacramento legal encampment should be given a opportunity, similar to Dignity Village and Camp Hope, to get uplifted over time. If a Sacramento Safe Ground is, by definition, temporary and 'only' there to cover for inadequate shelter space, How can you expect homeless people to feel secure to invest in the effort to make a homey place, a base for people to rebuild their lives?

The response of the city of Sacramento to Tent City has been to remove the encampment by the end of this month. And then, to make bed-space available to the displaced in an expanded (by 50 beds) Overflow shelter at Cal Expo; and by finding housing for, perhaps, 40 people; and, perhaps, by creating very temporary space for a small number of tents somewhere at Cal Expo.

These efforts, done at great expense, are unlikely to sop up demand for healthy and helpful sleeping and living situations that can get people to believe they are moving in a direction toward feeling that one day they will be productive and fully human, again.

How many homeless are there? And who are they?

	Photo from the Chronicle story.

Despite all the attention that has come to homelessness, both nationally and here in Sacramento, it remains mysterious how many homeless there are. Whatever happened to the "Street Count, 2009" data that was supposed to have been made available "five or six weeks" following the count, that was taken on January 27?

The lead story today in the San Francisco Chronicle is about the growing number of homeless: "Ranks of homeless swell as middle class teeters." The story tells us,

Homelessness across the entire nation is soaring, and experts say most of that growth is among ... middle- to lower-middle-income workers – or families. But here's the tricky thing: They aren't all showing up in shelters yet.

There's a long ladder of resources they first have to tumble down before they hit bottom . ... Right now, experts say, the newly homeless are mostly invisible – living with relatives and tapping friends and unemployment checks to avoid the shelters.

But given the ailing economy that saw a record 5.7 million Americans collecting unemployment last week, there will soon be thousands of new faces in the cots.

...

"A majority in the shelter look like they've been doing this a long time," [said one middle-class worker who had tumbled down to the bottom] as he got into line for a night in Marin County's temporary winter shelter for men. (The shelter closed Wednesday when funding shortages prevented community leaders from keeping it open longer than spring, despite a "sleep-in" protest by homeless advocates at the county civic center.) "But there are others like me. We kind of look at each other and shake our heads."

As you can see, the effects of the economy are yet to greatly affect the streets and the shelters, but that's starting to rev up.

It's an interesting situation in Sacramento: Even though the reality has been that growth in on-the-street homelessness hasn't started to take off, yet (dispite what you've been told in all the misinformation that has come from the months-long international Oprah-initiated media blitz on Sacramento homelessness), it will soon, and it will skyrocket. Bad times aren't here; they're in the offing.

A curious thing: The city is spending a pretty-fair-sized pot of money [~$1,000,000] to address the situation that is at hand NOW, to shelter (or disperse or hide) ~180 campers in tent city, when the BIG BIG problems are sure to come later this year, extending well into 2010.

Tent city happened, not so much because of "new homeless," families made destitute because of the flailing economy, but because people already on the street were being rousted – from the mission area on Bannon Street and crack alley and elsewhere.

Update 5/3/09: Relating to the paragraph immediately above this one, we now know that there was a DECREASE in new, roofless families between Jan 08 and Jan 09 and that the Oprah-inspired media blitz in Sac'to was bogus. See: "The Sacramento Homeless Emergency that Wasn't There"

Tentative opening of new space at Overflow is set for Apr 13.

	Photo from VOA webspace showing opening day of the Winter Shelter for 2008-09.

The tentative opening date for the expanded area of Overflow [aka, Winter Shelter] is set for April 13, according to a Volunteers of America [VOA] media release. VOA operates the shelter at Cal Expo under contract with Sacramento County. We are told that five modular units have now been erected behind the main building of the shelter, to create needed additional space.

This new space will provide an area to place "as many as 50 additional beds for men and women," increasing the shelter capacity which today stands at 104 bunk-bed spaces for men and 52 bunk-bed slots for women and children.

The cost of extending the period in which Overflow is open, three months beyond its normal Mar. 31 close, is being borne by the City of Sacramento. As part of the city's effort to provide places to sleep to the growing number of homeless people in the city and county, and in light of the determination that the city will close Tent City soon, heightened demand for shelter space is expected this month.

Moving tent residents out of Tent City is an ongoing effort by the Sacramento police. When the final push will come, rousting resistant tent residents from their abodes, is unknown, but it will not occur before the new beds at Overflow are available. New-bed availability and full closure of Tent City are near certain to occur before the end of this month, a time-frame that Mayor Johnson has given. After Tent City residents are gone, SMUD and Union Pacific property, where the encampment emerged, will be fenced off.

In its press release, VOA asked for donations of cash, items on a list of things needed for the new shelter space, and time from people interested in volunteering to help at the shelter or provide services. SacHo will provide more information about this when VOA posts its donation request and list of needs at its webspace.

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UPDATE: An earlier version of this post included some computations of costs/expenses that were faulty. My bad. My apologies to VOA for putting bad information "out there" without careful checking [or, even, causual checking] of elements that I didn't understand.

-- Tom Armstrong

Light Rail to extend from Amtrak, up 7th, to Richards

	New rail appears green on this tiny map; new stations are orange. CLICK THE PIC, ABOVE, to see a still-small, but readable version of the map. CLICK HERE to see the map, in full size, on the second page of an RT pdf document you may download.

Of interest to many in the homeless community [though, the City might prefer it wasn't], a new section of Light Rail will be constructed from the Sacramento Train Station, up 7th Street, to Richards Blvd. Two new light-rail stations are proposed: one on Richards, just west of 7th, and another at 8th & I, very near the Central library branch.

Construction will begin late this summer, with completion expected late in 2010. This is the first leg in a project that will eventually hook up downtown Sacramento with the International Airport, while passing through the River District and Natomas.

Many homeless people - especially those staying at the Union Gospel Mission and the VOA shelter on Bannon Street - walk along much of the long desolate section of 7th Street where rail will be placed. Along 7th Street, up from I St. to North B St., a bi-directional single rail will be installed on the east side of 7th. North of North B, they will install a double rail for passing trains.

Regional Transit's quick name for the construction is MOS-1 [for Minimal Operable Segment #1], with a layperson title of Green Line to the River District. The whole project, with all its segments, from downtown through Natomas to the Airport, is called DNA, short for "Downtown Natomas Airport."